Hurricane season officially began on June 1st. So if you live on the coast of the eastern United States it’s time to start biting your nails. I have a personal hatred for these storms.
You see, I arrived in Charleston, SC in October of 1989 just after hurricane Hugo, which decimated this truly beautiful American city a month previously. I had never seen anything like it, but it wasn’t until hurricane Floyd in September of 1999 that I truly began to have a demonic hate for hurricanes. When Floyd was closing in on what we thought was a certain Charleston landfall, we evacuated. Unfortunately for us, poor government planning combined with the largest evacuation in American history left us trapped in the biggest traffic jam I will probably ever see. It took my wife, dog, 2 cats and myself twenty-six hours to make it from Charleston to Atlanta. A trip that should have taken four hours.
Have you ever driven 26 hours straight in bumper-to-bumper traffic? Pray you never do. Pray hard. I was literally having hallucinations of giant, German-speaking chickens pulling helpless victims from their cars and eating them whole. Might be pretty cool in the context of a movie or a dream, but not when you really believe it to be true.
Recently, I was thinking about this horrific experience and started compiling a list of songs that would fit if I ever find myself in a similar situation again or perhaps for those stupid enough to have a “hurricane party”.
All of these songs have something to do with hurricanes or storms whether it’s literally or as a metaphor.
In 1953 the National Hurricane Center began naming hurricanes. At first with only female names, but this changed in 1979 when male names started to be alternated with female ones. The first storm of the season is given a name that begins with “A” and each subsequent storm follows the alphabet all the way to “W” if necessary, excluding the letters “Q” or “U”. A name is retired only after a devastating storm. This year’s name schedule is as follows:
Arlene
Bret
Cindy
Dennis
Emily
Franklin
Gert
Harvey
Irene
Jose
Katrina
Lee
Maria
Nate
Ophelia
Philippe
Rita
Stan
Tammy
Vince
Wilma
Let’s hope none of these retire this year, but if one of them does visit you, at least you’ve got the soundtrack.
Article comments
1 - Tan Hoang
"Hurricane 2000" by the Scorpions
2 - uao
Sadly, Rhapsody Radish is no more. I actually felt depressed all night about that; it was becoming a nexus of sorts of music-blog writers. I wish Robert well with his next endevor.
Don't forget Robert: "We are the music makers, we are the dreamers of dreams"
3 - Mary K. Williams
Good List - I have an addition if ya like. How about Zeppelin's "When the Levee Breaks".
4 - phil
rode out charley last year on my 23' sailboat...thought the roof was coming of several times the next morning i find a dead fish in my cockpit ....it was truly a spiritual experience..Nature is awesome...God is nature
5 - amy
how bout jumpin jack flash, "i was born in a class five hurricane"
6 - mark hackley
my new CD to soon be released is entitled "Hurricane" with the feature track of the same title. It will be posted on my website- www.markhackley.com- by December and will be available for download/ online purchase soon. I wrote the song in 2004 after VA was hit hard by a hurricane.
(FYI) Mark Hackley
7 - Michael Petter
Jimmy Buffett - Trying to Reason With Hurricane Season. Great song, great artist.